Eleanor Mondale Poling and her brother William once rescued a mangy, flea-bitten dog – “a dog who looked so bad, the coyotes let it live” – from the middle of Interstate 405 in Los Angeles.

“Eleanor never forgot that acts of caring and justice were integral to a full life – any life,” William Mondale told mourners gathered Wednesday at a memorial service for her at St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Minneapolis.

“That’s why beyond her tireless energy and eternal beauty, she gained a singular prize – the loyalty of absolute strangers. People came up to me and said, ‘I never knew her, but I felt I did because she spoke from the heart without reservation.’ ”

Poling, a radio and TV personality and the daughter of former Vice President Walter Mondale and his wife, Joan, died Sept. 17 at her home after suffering from brain cancer for six years. She was 51.

“She saved animals like people save receipts,” said William Mondale, Poling’s younger brother and a former state assistant attorney general. “It was just second nature to her.”

Among the guests who filled the 1,100-seat cathedral were Gov. Mark Dayton, U.S. Sens. Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar, Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman, former Gov. Arne Carlson and U.S. Ambassador to Morocco Sam Kaplan.

An urn holding Poling’s remains was placed at the front of the sanctuary before the service began.

“Eleanor always loved moving forward,” William Mondale said. “We can find comfort in knowing that while on this Earth, she lived her existence looking – and leaning – forward.”

The Rev. Spenser Simrill, who delivered the homily, remembered Poling as “a risk-taker.”

“She put her creative, energetic self out there,” he said. “She knew disappointment. She knew heartbreak. She never whined.”

Simrill is dean of St. Mark’s, where Eleanor Mondale and Twin Cities musician Chan Poling were married in 2005.

“As she was dying, she was held in the faithful arms of Chan,” Simrill said. “He handed her over to the generous, reassuring, abiding love of God. Let this comfort us.”

Eleanor and Chan Poling, a founding member of the Suburbs and the New Standards, lived on a farm in Prior Lake with miniature horses, cats, chickens, dogs and a cockatoo.

Ted Mondale, chairman of the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, said his sister “found her place in life” when she moved back to Minnesota from California.

“She finally found the perfect man to share it all with. Chan, you were the man,” Mondale said. “Always loving, always giving, only politely questioning.

“That was key to the relationship, as far as I see it,” he said to laughter.

Chan Poling did not speak at the service. He thanked friends on his Facebook page Wednesday morning.

“I wanted to thank everyone one more time for all of your kind comments and thoughts,” Poling wrote. “Love is all we have really in the end, and Eleanor brought it, she lived it, and we all feel it here.”

Eleanor Poling began her broadcasting career in the late 1980s as a radio disc jockey in Chicago. In 1989, she became an entertainment reporter at WCCO-TV in Minneapolis. She later worked as a DJ at WLOL-FM in Minneapolis and as an on-air personality at the E! Online cable channel, ESPN and “This Morning” on CBS.

In 2006, Poling replaced Pat Miles in the 9 a.m.-to-noon time slot on WCCO-AM, teaming up with Susie Jones for “The Mondale and Jones Show.”

She had been off the air at WCCO-AM since March 2009, when she announced that her cancer had returned for a second time.

Jones, who also spoke at the memorial service, said a listener called WCCO-AM after Mondale died and described her as a “force of nature.”

“She gave people permission to be outrageous, independent and unique,” Jones said. “It was one of the many gifts she gave us.”

Mondale was comfortable in her own skin, Jones said.

“She could be one of the most glamorous women on the planet and then come to work with her farm boots on, which she did a lot, with mud and poo on them and no makeup, just living life,” Jones said. “She was honest and shot from the hip – both on the air and off.”

Ted Mondale said his sister loved working at WCCO-AM.

“She really thought the idea of being able to go to work in sweat pants and getting paid to say whatever was on her mind was an incredible luxury,” he said.

Eleanor brought “a flair, a passion, a sense of freedom to everything she did,” whether it was roller-skating on the Great Wall of China, conducting a yoga session on a fjord in Norway or wearing tennis shoes under a gown while covering the Oscars, Ted Mondale said.

“She lived her life her way, always doing what she wanted and what she thought was right,” he said. “She freely chased after her goals with energy that was tireless and with enthusiasm that was unending. Just try saying ‘No’ to her when she had some great plan. She was relentless.

“I want you all to know that she was ready to go,” he said. “She had come to terms with her passing and she went in comfort and peace. Now she’s free and, no doubt, living it her way in another, better place.

“You can be sure heaven just got a lot more lively,” he said. “It was Eleanor’s world, and for those of us who had the joy and the inspiration of living in it, we will miss her to the end of our days.”

Music played an integral role in the service, which began with “Eleanor and Chan’s Wedding Waltz,” written by Chan Poling.

It ended with Poling’s fellow members of the New Standards, John Munson and Steve Roehm, performing “Silver Stallion.”

“I’m gonna chase the sky forever,” they sang. “With the woman and the stallion and the wind / And the sun is gonna burn into a cinder / Before we ever pass this way again. / And we’re gonna ride, we’re gonna ride. / Ride like the one-eyed jack of diamonds, / With the devil close behind. / We’re gonna ride.”

Mary Divine is a reporter for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. She covers Washington County and the St. Croix River Valley, but has also spent time covering the state Capitol. She has won numerous journalism awards, including the Premack Award and the Minnesota Society of Professional Journalists' Page One Award. Prior to joining the Pioneer Press in 1998, she worked for the Rochester, Minn., Post-Bulletin and at the St. Joseph, Mo., News-Press. Her work has also appeared in a number of magazines, including Mpls/St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Business Monthly and Minnesota Magazine. She is a graduate of Carleton College and lives in St. Paul with her husband, Greg Myers, and their three children, Henry, 16, Frances, 14, and Fred, 11.

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